SATELLITE & CABLE: BBC lifting Asia profile to attract ad dollars

BBC World is gearing up to build a higher profile in the region, with an eye on growing international advertising opportunities. "Asia business is very vibrant and dynamic, and we have many opportunities to build the advertising revenue further," said BBC World director of airtime sales Jonathan Howlett. After lying low during the past few years, the BBC is substantially increasing its regional marketing activities in a bid to strengthen the six- year old network's proposition and value. "It's not enough just to have the product (news channel), but we also need to have marketing and branding activities to support (the brand) if you have competitors like CNN," noted Mr Howlett. The channel will be more actively participating in trade marketing activities, offering more below-the-line and airtime advertising opportunities to marketers. In addition to the Hong Kong and Singapore offices, the BBC has currently set up sales representation in Thailand and Korea and a Tokyo office as well. Reaching 16.2 million homes in 14 countries across Asia and the Middle East, the BBC's key target audiences are affluent and business decision makers in the region. China and the US are the two countries where the BBC has yet to penetrate in a systematic manner, but plans to launch a full channel service in the US is underway. In Taiwan, the BBC has signed a five-year distribution deal with Mega Media Broadcasting Network on both the cable and DTH platform, with a Chinese subtitle service. The pact with Mega Media complements the BBC's existing deal with Pacific Digital Media, which also offers DTH distribution in Taiwan. As advertising is the main revenue for the BBC in Asia, Mr Howlett said the network opts to get as much distribution as possible on the DTH, cable and hotel platforms as well. Hotel distribution is essential to BBC World, with the target being frequent business travellers across the region, according to Mr Howlett. "There are so many people travelling in Asia; even in markets where we have limited distribution, we can still reach a good proportion of our target audiences," he said. The BBC moved its advertising team in-house from Star TV last year because the network wanted to sell its advertising proposition and value more directly to the clients, said Mr Howlett. The benefit of having the advertising and marketing team in-house is that the channel can now handle and understand existing and potential advertising opportunities more directly and clearly. In addition to conventional airtime sales, Mr Howlett said the BBC will offer marketers more integrated marketing packages, combining both on-the-ground and on-air promotion opportunities. However, BBC World is not allowed to accept any sponsorship on its current affairs or news programmes. With 60 advertisers on board, Mr Howlett said the BBC's advertising approach focuses on international and regional marketers promoting on the pan regional media. Advertisers on board with BBC came mainly from the corporate, financial institution, automobile, airlines and hotel, telecommunications and automobile sectors, such as ABB, Airbus, DHL, Diners Club, JP Morgan and Shell. With its transmission hub in Singapore, the BBC's key markets in Asia are Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, and the channel also has strong presence in India and Australia. Positioned as an international news network, BBC Worldwide is pursuing its global proposition on covering worldwide news and information. For local news, Mr Howlett said the coverage should be best done by local broadcasters and the BBC's position is to complement the local stories with analysis and reporting on a worldwide platform. Many regional broadcasters are adopting a localised programming strategy in a bid to attract viewership and local advertisers. Mr Howlett said BBC has developed certain customisations, such as Japanese voiceovers and Chinese subtitling, but the level of localisation is not the same as music and documentary channels. BBC World now reaches more than 162 million homes in 200 countries with 24-hour broadcasting to nearly 70 million households. The London-based news network is available to more than 500,000 hotel rooms and selected airports and it is also airing on British Airways, Air India, Royal Brunei, Kuwait Airways, Gulf Air, SAS and KLM. BBC plans to increase business news programming next year. Mr Howlett pointed out that Asia has a strong business agenda in addition to general news programming.

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